Personally I just don’t find this reliable. Heat damage can be insidious, making a wine simply seem not quite right rather than notably terrible, or subtly magnifying faults. If it was me I’d likely find my enjoyment lessened by concerns over whether the wine had been damaged, which is to say nothing of longer term aging. I’d return them, but that’s just me. It depends on how hot it was outside too though and what the wines were. Old wines though, I’d be more likely to return. Over 90 daytime temps I’d return.
Michael,
I’d have to strongly disagree with those conclusions, since the data shows that the bottles in cardboard heats up more than 2x faster than in styrofoam.
I don’t want to thread drift too much (though this discussion is somewhat related). I also received a shipment yesterday (on practically the hottest day of the month!). Fortunately, it was a quick shipment and was only in transit for maybe a day in styro, but I was still a little miffed at the timing.
Renaissance Winery.
Salil, Corey and I all had the same experience. My wines were just delivered this past Monday, spending the weekend somewhere here in the South were it was still breaking '80s then. Sunday the temps hit 90 and Monday afternoon, while the wine was out for delivery, hit 84.
But my story is a little different than my Northern colleagues. I specifically emailed the Winery beforehand to make sure they could hold until better shipping weather to FL, with my confirmation regarding when to ship. And it gets better, after Corey and Salil had their experience - we had been texting - I specifically emailed the winery to tell them I heard from my friends Salil and Corey that wines had been shipped without coordination, and to not do so with me since FL weather was still warm. Well, they did it anyway. One day I got an unexpected UPS email with a tracking number. I complained to the winery, and they at least did say “it’s within their risk tolerance” or something like that, and if there is anything wrong, they will replace/refund.
The delivery came in on Monday, I was not in the office until today. I will say, the packing is pristine. Not styro, but tissue slips betweeen all rows for label protection. I do not know if they came in warm to the touch. Eleven bottles appear perfect. No signs of seepage, capsules spin, etc. One has clear sights of seepage and the capsule is stuck. I have no idea whether that bottle was compromised before shipping or during. I will pop that wine first.
What a shame that a winery cannot get something like this right. They did everything else so very right.
Just to piggy back, when I ordered by phone, I specifically asked about shipping and was told they always check and the wines would likely not go out until mid-October. Got my wines in a September heat wave.
Oops.
I had a case of wine shipped from WA state to a friend’s business in GA since the winery did not ship to SC. My buddy tossed the wine in the back of his truck and headed up to visit one weekend. I had already asked that he not put it in the bed but he did not think it was that hot out, well it was. When I opened the cardboard box, a few of the bottles had leaked and all were warm to the touch. Since it was not the wineries fault and my buddy had done me a favor by lettting me ship wine to him, I had no choice but to keep them and try them out. Some of the bottles showed signs of being cooked when we opened them so they were dumped, but most of the bottles were absolutely fine and we drank the case over a year.
This experience led me to understand that even though the entire case might be subjected to heat, the entire case might not be bad. But if given the chance to return potentially heat damaged wine, I would have a hard time not returning it even if the first bottle I opened was good. There is too much of a chance of a hit or miss with it, especially if you plan to age it.
It`s hard to imagine any winery/ winemaker wanting their wines to be subjected to intense heat whether it be during transport and/ or sitting over a weekend.
They may need to have a Renaissance about their shipping quality control policy.
Yea, it’s baffling. It’s not like this winery has a massive following or closed list; it’s an often-forgotten winery that could benefit from some attention. While I’m normally pretty hawkish about shipping and shipping windows, I think red wine, esepcially young red wine, is more durable than we think. I take no risk, but most of the times no major worry. Here we are not dealing with young wines, some in the mixed case go back to 1994, library releases.
Just not an auspicious start here.
Based on that one bottle I’d send the whole lot back. If for any reason than just on principle to teach them a lesson.
I tend to agree with your comment about reds holding up against imperfect conditions. I`ve had many a bottle I figured was cooked or negatively effected only to find them viable and without fault. Among other times, that happened when my standup wine cellar of 300+ bottles went out for 3 days before discovered. Not one red wine was adversely effected including some “older” ones of 20 + years. I lost some champagnes though.
Well, I cut off the cap of the wine with a leak stain. The bottom of the capsule and the top of the cork were both wet. Freshly wet. I’m now pissed.
Here’s my question about wine showing fine after suspected heat damage: what if the effects of the heat weren’t so much that it affected the wine in the near term but rather, in the long?
In other words, what if the damage doesn’t show until a couple/few years later.
You’re the paying customer. They didn’t listen to your instructions. Heck they can’t even sort that Florida is hot as heck still (an idiot could guess that). Send it back for a full replacement or refund. Oh and make a small mark on the bottles, just to make sure they don’t resend the same ones (I got that idea from another Berserker some years ago in another thread).
I had a retailer do this to me with a case of champagne. I asked that they hold my order until I called in to ship, and then proceeded to ship ground shipping with temps in the 80s along the route. I called to have them reroute the shipment back to them, and requested a refund. they wanted to recall the order and then hold it for me to ship later.
I said no way, those are damaged goods as far as I’m concerned. They also are trying to claim that they will have to charge me a restocking fee to cover the credit card charge…even though they admitted it was their error and even though I told them and they put a note on my order not to ship until I called. Will be interesting to see when I call Amex to contest the charge, how the retailer responds…
Great idea Andy to mark the bottles. I`d bet many of us have received the same bottles in return. Hopefully, none of us have to deal with this issue which requires buying from reputable producers. This post and others help us to make better decisions in that regard.
“Should any of the wines be compromised by the heat, we will credit you or replace them as needed.”
Most dreaded response. Then I am supposed to keep track of which wines might be compromised even though we might not open them for several years. It’s been a long haul to educate wineries/shippers that AZ is between CA and NM, and it’s very hot there. We’ve dumped a lot of wine.